# “Did the earliest humans and dinosaurs live at the same time?” **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 7, 2026, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636 "2026-10-07T04:24:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/21 "2026-10-07T15:05:12Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/22 "2026-10-07T15:32:00Z")
Short answer: No Long answer: Yes ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/23 "2026-10-07T15:33:12Z")
No. However, as with so many yes/no questions, the proper answer is “It depends.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/24 "2026-10-07T15:44:15Z")
> [@solost](#): > > why not just claim Noah forgot the dinos-- like he missed the unicorn in that Irish Rovers song? Shel Silverstein sez, “What am I, chopped liver?” ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/25 "2026-10-07T16:12:19Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Short answer: No > Long answer: Yes This is the best answer. And to expand on the second (long) answer: I would say, “Technically, yes…because all living birds are technically dinosaurs and there is no way to define what a dinosaur is (that includes all of the animals commonly referred to as “dinosaurs”) that does not _also_ include birds (other than artificial constructs like “non-avian dinosaurs”).” If anyone is curious, there are two orders of dinosaurs, mainly distinguished by their hip joints: - Ornithischian dinosaurs, like _Triceratops_ or _Stegosaurus_. - Saurischian dinosaurs, which are further subdivided into two suborders: 1. Sauropodomorph dinosaurs, like _Diplodocus_, _Apatosaurus_, or the familiar _Brontosaurus_ (although the status of the last as a distinct genus is uncertain). 2. Theropod dinosaurs, which includes _Tyrannosaurus rex_, _Velociraptor_, and **all living birds**. Birds are therefore much more closely related to _T. rex_ (indisputably a dinosaur in the popular imagination), than either are to dinosaurs in the other categories (which are also indisputably considered to be “dinosaurs”.) Ergo, birds are dinosaurs. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/26 "2026-10-07T16:21:34Z")
I’ve been kind of amused – and a little confused – that ornithischian (“bird-hipped”) dinosaurs aren’t the ancestors of modern birds. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/27 "2026-10-07T16:59:47Z")
It’s technically true that humans and birds live at the same time and birds are dinosaurs. It’s also true that technically true answers allow facts to be yanked entirely out of context to give responses that are opposite to the larger meaning. With no context at all given in the OP, no answer can be satisfactorily given. Might as well say yes because you believe that an ancient now vanished race of humans lived 100,000,000 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/28 "2026-10-07T17:02:47Z")
But does that follow? Please excuse my ignorance, genuine question…the indisputable relationship / lineage between dinos and birds doesn’t necessarily make birds dinosaurs, does it? We all descended from single cell life, right? That doesn’t make us amoebas. Please be kind in your response if this is a dumb question. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/29 "2026-10-07T17:40:07Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > But does that follow? Please excuse my ignorance, genuine question…the indisputable relationship / lineage between dinos and birds doesn’t necessarily make birds dinosaurs, does it? We all descended from single cell life, right? That doesn’t make us amoebas. > > Please be kind in your response if this is a dumb question. 😄 Lineage is indeed part of it, but not the whole story. It’s the fact that if you want to include a group (technically a “[clade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clade)”) of animals as diverse as _Tyrannosaurus rex_, _Triceratops_, and _Apatosaurus_ in the same category (i.e. “dinosaurs”), then the group necessarily and logically must also include modern birds. Modern birds are not only closer to other theropods (like _T. rex_) physically, genetically, and evolutionarily, but are also closer temporally to _T. rex_ (65 million years) than _T. rex_ itself was to dinosaurs like _Stegosaurus_ (which died out about 145 million years ago). And if you get into the science of [cladistics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladistics), you learn that a clade is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor _and all of its descendants_. So since dinosaurs are today considered to be members of the clade Dinosauria, modern birds are also members. (And incidentally, if you want to make a clade that includes all amoebas, you will find yourself including all eukaryotic organisms, because amoeboid cells are found in all major lineages of eukaryotic organisms. And yes, humans fall into that clade as well, because humans are [eukaryotes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eukaryote). With that said, amoebas do not otherwise fall into a single defined taxonomic group.) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/30 "2026-10-07T19:14:08Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > With no context at all given in the OP, no answer can be satisfactorily given. That’s why I call such “factual” questions functionally indistinguishable from riddles. In both cases, you basically have to guess what the questioner means before you know what the answer “should” be. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/31 "2026-10-07T19:22:30Z")
Thank you, very helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/32 "2026-10-07T20:36:35Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Except this question was used in a poll to show how stupid Americans are. “Hurr durr, 41% of Americans think humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time! What a bunch of idiots!” It’s not being asked in good faith nor is it meant as a riddle (in the original poll.) Agree. If this question was being asked in good faith the OP could have easily specified a kind of dinosaur often depicted with cave men in fiction like a _Tyrannosaurus rex_. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/33 "2026-10-07T21:49:21Z")
Hey, it’s Jersey. I wouldn’t call it “living”! ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/34 "2026-10-07T21:50:29Z")
Did humans live alongside dinosaurs? Define your terms. Is Dr. Deth’s ‘like a poll’ worth anything? No. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/35 "2026-10-07T22:04:15Z")
no, our ancestors were basically tree shrews at the time. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/36 "2026-10-07T22:06:43Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I’ve often wondered something about people who believe humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time, and people who believe the story of Noah’s Ark to be literally true (the Venn diagram of which is probably a near-perfect match overlay). Maybe not. There have been some fun and entertaining films (and one great cartoon) that showed “cavemen” and dinos co-existing. Some not well educated people could well accept that. Only 20% of Americans are Bible Literalists. > [@Stratocaster](#): > > But does that follow? Please excuse my ignorance, genuine question…the indisputable relationship / lineage between dinos and birds doesn’t necessarily make birds dinosaurs, does it? Not dumb at all. The current _consensu_s among Scientists is that Birds are Dinosaurs . There are a reasonable number of holdouts who will only say "Birds are descended from Dinosaurs or “Birds and Dinosaurs are closely related”. > [@robby](#): > > And if you get into the science of [cladistics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladistics), you learn that a clade is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor _and all of its descendants_. So since dinosaurs are today considered to be members of the clade Dinosauria, modern birds are also members. Good answer. > [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Except this question was used in a poll to show how stupid Americans are. “Hurr durr, 41% of Americans think humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time! What a bunch of idiots!” It’s not being asked in good faith nor is it meant as a riddle (in the original poll.) I am doubtful if that is why the poll was originally done, but certainly it has been used many times to show just that. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/37 "2026-10-07T23:27:46Z")
Polls asking these sorts of questions are meant for headlines, not deep insight. The fact that it is a question in a poll provides all the context needed: no factual knowledge is required, just an average understanding of common American English usage. No good poll would put definitions into a question - hey, we really are asking about Fred Flintstone’s Dino, not recent cladistics. But a really good poll wouldn’t ask the question in the first place. Nevertheless, the best takeaway from the 41% answering “yes” is that around 40% of Americans think that it is correct answer. It’s not a trick question; nobody should delve beneath the surface. Surface is all it had. Stripping away the surface just leaves a hole that smartasses like us can fill. But by doing so we’re taking away information rather than adding it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/38 "2026-10-07T23:52:11Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Polls asking these sorts of questions are meant for headlines, not deep insight It was done by the California Academy of Sciences back in 2008- and yes, even back then Birds were Dinos. Other questions/results were: . According to the national survey commissioned by the California Academy of Sciences: - Only 53% of adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun. - Only 59% of adults know that the earliest humans and dinosaurs did not live at the same time. - Only 47% of adults can roughly approximate the percent of the Earth’s surface that is covered with water.\* - Only 21% of adults answered all three questions correctl. It seems they allowed some leeway on the two “math” questions- any answer between 65 and 75% was accepted as right for oceans. I do not know about _how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun._ Since the answer of course was not exactly 365 days. But I was reading the bit about Humans and dinos in a book, and yeah, they yucked it up about how stupid Americans were. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/39 "2026-10-08T00:08:23Z")
Yes. It’s like “If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound?” If you answer no, then the wise guy says “Wrong - the falling tree would cause air to vibrate and that’s what sound is!” If you answer yes, then the wisenheimer says “Wrong - there’s no one around to have the internal mental state called ‘sound.’” Providing a yes or no answer is a sucker’s game. > [@DesertDog](#): > > I’ve been kind of amused – and a little confused – that ornithischian (“bird-hipped”) dinosaurs aren’t the ancestors of modern birds. It is confusing, but relates to the fact that the group of dinosaurs was named before the true relationship between dinosaurs and birds was understood, so ‘ornithischian’ dinosaurs got that name based on a superficial similarity to birds, by people who didn’t know that other dinosaurs had a cladistic relationship with birds (it’s like how the word “meteor” and “meteorology” are both derived from a term meaning “atmospheric phenomenon” but they’ve become specialized to mean rather different things). ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636/40 "2026-10-08T00:45:51Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > > [@DesertDog](#): > > > > I’ve been kind of amused – and a little confused – that ornithischian (“bird-hipped”) dinosaurs aren’t the ancestors of modern birds. > > It is confusing, but relates to the fact that the group of dinosaurs was named before the true relationship between dinosaurs and birds was understood, so ‘ornithischian’ dinosaurs got that name based on a superficial similarity to birds, by people who didn’t know that other dinosaurs had a cladistic relationship with birds (it’s like how the word “meteor” and “meteorology” are both derived from a term meaning “atmospheric phenomenon” but they’ve become specialized to mean rather different things). Good answer! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-earliest-humans-and-dinosaurs-live-at-the-same-time/1033636.md?page=3)